How to justify being an online predator...

What makes this story even more absurd is the fact that Foley was head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues. How cunning of the fox to want to guard the hen house! Even more disgusting, top House Republicans seemed to have known for months about this disturbing correspondence between Foley and a former teenage page and did nothing about it! Votes before values, I suppose; their mothers would be proud.

This story alone makes my blood boil, but it’s actually what happened next that really irks me. Following the revelations, Foley immediately resigned his House Seat, and within a day, announced that he was molested as a child, is gay and that he suffers from alcoholism. Right on! Any other “afflictions� to add to this convenient list of woes? Why not make sure that he covers every possible angle, by adding “bullied at school� , “cross dresser� and “addicted to sleeping pills� to that list? Do I sound heartless? Nope, merely skeptical. This liar and a hypocrite was publicly championing children’s rights, while secretly harassing and propositioning young boys. Forgive me if I have a problem believing anything he’s saying now.

But, even if these last revelations are indeed true, what does it matter? So what if he was abused as a child, is gay and suffers from alcoholism? None of these “facts� negate the reality of what was just discovered. I can certainly empathize with someone who’s lived through sexual abuse as a child and can imagine the scars it can leave on a person’s soul. I can understand the secret feelings of shame and ambivalence associated with hiding your true sexuality and not being able to come to terms or want to reveal that you’re gay in a world that sometimes is too quick to judge. I can understand that alcoholism is an addiction that shatters lives and steers people towards the wrong decisions.

But what does any of this have to do with the price of tomatoes? The man was caught exchanging lurid emails with teenage boys and when the jig was up, he stepped down from his position and ran away to rehab. Is it me or has rehab become the convenient haven for celebrities and public figures in trouble, wishing to escape accountability?

I don’t care if he’s gay or not. I don’t care if he has a drinking problem or not. I DO care that he seems to be saying that if you have a drinking problem and/or are gay, it’s ok to be an online predator. The fact that he has, so far, evaded the law seems to be saying that too. Anyone else caught doing this, would be in handcuffs and yet he gets to saunter off to rehab and ramble off excuses. Like Benjamin Franklin once said: “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.� Other than politics, it appears....